AG offers deal on Latino districts

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday offered a deal that would increase Hispanic representation in the Texas congressional delegation. But because all of the parties did not agree to it, the thorny redistricting issue is still not settled.

The federal court in San Antonio that's handling the case encouraged all sides to keep talking.

Abbott  and some of the plaintiffs appeared close to agreeing to a map that adds new Hispanic-dominated districts.

A San Antonio federal court gave the state and minority groups until today to reach a compromise or find the Texas primaries, now targeted to be held on April 3, pushed back a second time. Those minority groups had filed a lawsuit saying the Republican-dominated Legislature drew maps that ignored the state’s growing Hispanic population.

Under the plan pushed by Abbott, Hispanics control of half of Texas’ four new congressional seats. The attorney general said seven minority groups agreed to the new plans for state House, state Senate, and Congress.

But a handful of groups - the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, and the Legislative Black Caucus - have all raised issues with the new maps.

Here in Central Texas, Travis County would be split into five congressional districts. And that would mean Democrat Lloyd Doggett, who has represented much of Austin since 1995, would be forced into a decidely less familiar district.